Catching big fish: Luck or Skill?

[WRB]

There’s is always the exception to the rule!
Most PB big bass are broken off by angler error.The big bass get hooked and comes towards the boat before it knows what’s going on, see’s the boat and panics about the same time the anger see’s bass and panics! The combination of confusions ends up loosing the bass!
My practiced reaction is tell myself to slow down pull on the line to check the drag and remind me this could be the fish.

At this point  it has taken a life time to hook this bass and everything goes into slow motion no mistakes, the only thing that matters is put the bass into the boat…follow the fish keep in control  I put a lot of giant bass in boat  following this advice.

Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

10 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

 

Best topwater fishing of my life during these events some years!

 

So exciting. I cast a clear Heddon Torpedo to smallies sucking mayflies off the surface and would get three/four/five hits before one managed to hook itself. It took several attempts each time because the mayflies were sticking out of their mouths. 

[J Francho]

13 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Best topwater fishing of my life during these events some years!

I 100% agree.  For some reason, especially smallmouth, fish seem activated during these hatches, not turned off at all.  My guess is there is also a ton of baitfish activity and they are focused on eating anything within striking distance while the buffet is open.

[Columbia Craw]

You have to fish where they live.

Fish the time of year they are accessible.

Fish baits and techniques that are proven.

Fish high percentage locations.

Fish gear that won’t fail.

Fish often.

 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

18 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

 

Best topwater fishing of my life during these events some years!

and then it’s sucks afterwards for a week or so. That’s my experience.

On 2/12/2025 at 8:21 PM, Swamp Girl said:

 

I fished through those hatches and caught a lot of fish. Their mouths would be stuffed with mayflies, but they'd still hit a lure.

Yeah I am talking about after.

[Pumpkin Lizard]

Not my picture but I have seen it like this.  Places close the river were using snowblowers to clear them out. 

[Swamp Girl]

58 minutes ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

Yeah I am talking about after.

 

That makes sense.

[rboat]

I agree the answer is both. The big girls are kind of different. They have become larger/older because they learned how to stay hidden and away from predators and anglers. They normally do not school, and are kind of loaners. They shy away from noise and movement. 

When I think of big bass, I can't help but think of Doug Hannon. He caught over 800 double digit bass. He did not have a giant bassboat, no powerpoles, no FFS, no depthfinder, and rarely used a trolling motor. He used a paddle or a push pole for stealth in a padded tin john boat most of the time. He got back into places most would not try to fish.

RIP. Doug

 

[KSanford33]

2 hours ago, rboat said:

When I think of big bass, I can't help but think of Doug Hannon.

I still watch his videos on YouTube. He’s like the Bob Ross of fishing. 

[J Francho]

[Swamp Girl]

5 hours ago, rboat said:

He did not have a giant bassboat, no powerpoles, no FFS, no depthfinder, and rarely used a trolling motor. He used a paddle or a push pole for stealth in a padded tin john boat most of the time. He got back into places most would not try to fish.

 

[Bankbeater]

A lot of times in pressured water, catching any bass at all comes down to figuring out what they will bite that is different from what everyone else is fishing with.  Usually it comes down to being more about presentation than the actual bait.

[BrianMDTX]

Anyone can catch a big bass, just as any deer hunter can kill a huge trophy buck. Right place at the right time. But consistently is not luck, it’s skill. And knowledge. 

[geo g]

I agree with most,  there is knowledge involved with catching big bass on a frequent level.  But many big bass are caught using live baits which I refuse to do. I have caught a large number of 8 to 11 pound bass over the last 50 years on artificial baits.  But  I attribute my catches to being on the water often and keeping my lures wet all the time.  If you want to catch big fish:

1). Go to bodies of water that hold big fish.

2).Throw big fish baits, and slow down and don’t over work the bait.

3) Throw baits you have confidence in, not the new item from the catalog.

4).Slow down, and pause often, can’t recommend this enough.  Real big bass are not out chasing, trying to run down targets.   they are ambushing from an hidden position anything that can fit in their mouth.

5).Target thick rich green vegetation’s close to major break points.  Big bass will move up and down ledges depending on weather conditions, and bait fish patterns.

6)..More time on the water, and lure in the water,  will improve your odds at a Kodak moment!

7).We often give big bass credit for being smart.  They are not smart but incredibly reactive to their environment.  They are not sitting around thinking what will I do today, but changing behaviors  by sensing changes that surround them in their hood.  They don’t control anything, but are controlled by the environment!

[TriStateBassin106]

Imo it's a bit of both, I've caught giants on ned rigs and dinks on glidebaits. I do feel that big baits will usually get you bigger fish. 

[Swamp Girl]

5 hours ago, geo g said:

Slow down, and pause often, can’t recommend this enough.  Real big bass are not out chasing, trying to run down targets.   they are ambushing from an hidden position anything that can fit in their mouth.

 

Great advice. Thank you.

[Big Hands]

On 2/10/2025 at 7:19 AM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I think at some point Bass get so big and wise that it's almost impossible to catch them on anything but live bait.   The trout chunkers of SoCal back in the day, along with modern big Shiner and Gizzard guides have proven this to me over time.

 

At first thought, I would be inclined to agree, but to share my anecdotal sample size of one: I have been fishing Castaic for over 40 years and lived here since 1987. BITD, the heyday of big bas fishing at Castaic, I fished live bait quite often (mostly crawdads and mudsuckers) and I have never caught a bass over six and a half pounds on live bait. I would even say that most people I know here caught their biggest bass on artificial baits.

[king fisher]

I'm not sure if I believe in the big bass are lazy theory.  All of the bigger bass I have caught have been caught while fishing fast.  Even the ones caught on plastic worms have hit either on the fall, or after a quick hop or two.  The biggest bass I have ever seen chased down a bass I had hooked, and grabbed it right at the boat.  This bass was huge and did not look to be lazy.

 

When fishing live bait for bass, I have never caught one on a bait that was moving slow.  They always want fresh fast swimming baits.

 

If a bass isn't willing to move quickly to catch it's food it will stave.  Most of the prey a bass eats, is very quick, and will try and escape.  If the bass only easts an easy meal, the bass will not grow to be big.

 

I know my opinion goes against what most bass fisherman have preached for years, and I may be wrong, but I can't ignore what I have observed, just because it goes against the majority opinion.

[MediumMouthBass]

@king fisher i agree with you. Every big largemouth i caught bit a moving bait, usually being ripped through the water fast. And even the ones who bit as the lipless started to fall down slow when i paused they still had to chase the bait when it was moving fast.

 

If bass are like humans the bigger they are the more they need to consume, can anyone think of a lazy bodybuilder that sits on a couch all day waiting for a cheeseburger to swim in front of them?

I dont think many large bass would survive waiting for food to come to them, i think they are always hunting for food.

 

Now the guys using live bait fished slow i can see how that might be different, because thats an actual live minnow, bluegill, trout, etc...

For manmade baits and lures i think these big bass have to be smart enough to avoid them or else how would they have survived that long?

 

Whereas something going past them as a high speed they dont have that time to check it out, they either follow it and commit or they back off.

[Pat Brown]

Okay y'all - lazy is the wrong word and overused - tongue in cheek mostly - realistically the word is probably something more like 'efficient'

 

Is being efficient the same as being lazy?

 

To a person who is cynical - the two are misconstrued as being the same thing - but bass are not lazy - they are efficient.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, Big Hands said:

 

At first thought, I would be inclined to agree, but to share my anecdotal sample size of one: I have been fishing Castaic for over 40 years and lived here since 1987. BITD, the heyday of big bas fishing at Castaic, I fished live bait quite often (mostly crawdads and mudsuckers) and I have never caught a bass over six and a half pounds on live bait. I would even say that most people I know here caught their biggest bass on artificial baits.

The thing is people just dismiss live bait fishing as skill less, the above is proof it's just the opposite.    

 

Does it require the mastery like artificials, not in my opinion.   It does however require a dedicated knowledge base, and more importantly enough experience doing it.  

 

The WR Bass was taken on a live BG after all.    

 

If there's one thing I believe more about catching big Bass than anything, its live bait is vastly superior if results are all that matters.   

 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the ultimate big Bass weapon......FFS 

[king fisher]

9 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Okay y'all - lazy is the wrong word and overused - tongue in cheek mostly - realistically the word is probably something more like 'efficient'

 

Is being efficient the same as being lazy?

 

To a person who is cynical - the two are misconstrued as being the same thing - but bass are not lazy - they are efficient.

OK, in my experience EFFICIENT, bass move quickly, chase fast moving bait and lures, and grow big because they hunt fast and often.  They may waste a little energy chasing, but more than make up for the loss, by catching and eating more food.  I am fortunate to have the opportunity to fish for large unpressured bass.  They have not been caught, and are not scared of loud fast lures.  They prefer to hit fast moving baits, because they are aggressive predators.  Bass that are pressured may be more cautious and less likely to chase a lure down because they perceive a fast moving lure as dangerous, where as a slow moving bait may look more real or safe to eat.  

 

In order for a bass to grow big they must be aggressive, but show enough caution to grow old.  Depending on where you fish, the balance between aggressiveness, and caution can be very different.  I do believe a big bass doesn't mind swinging for the fences and striking out often, as long as they hit a home run once in awhile.  Sure they may waste some energy trying to catch a bait that swims fast and gets away, but the nutrition from the ones they catch far out way the expended energy, from the ones that get away.

[WRB]

Big swim baits work for a few reasons their size makes them highly visible and detectable from a greater distance than small lures. Bass don’t know their size so they can only get close to determine if the prey can be eaten and make mistakes sometimes trying to eat something they can’t swallow.

The bigger lures drawing power can’t be over looked. The fact a big swim bait can be cast a long distance takes advantage of its drawing power. Just because it’s big doesn’t guarantee the big bass will strike it. The bass may be curious and follow the swim bait. In musky fishing this follow is called raising a fish revealing it’s location, bass are no different they also reveal this location.

I have caught DD size bass using big swim baits but no giant bass over 15lbs. The giant bass I did catch were using hair jigs with pork trailers because that was the lure I choose 90% of the time. jig doesn’t cover a lot of water unless you make very long casts and harder for a bass to detect, must be within their strike window lowering the odds. When a big bass does locate the jig they usually strike it more often than a bigger lure. No panacea using any particular lure just lots of time on the water grinding it out.

Tom
 

[Team9nine]

4 minutes ago, king fisher said:

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to fish for large unpressured bass. 

And there is the difference, IMO. Very few people get that opportunity any more, but unpressured bass (or any game fish for that matter), just behave differently. Not a lot of waters, especially public ones, where the biggest remaining bass haven’t changed their behaviors in some way (location, aggressiveness, feeding windows, etc.). 

[MediumMouthBass]

 

3 hours ago, WRB said:

The bigger lures drawing power can’t be over looked. The fact a big swim bait can be cast a long distance takes advantage of its drawing power. Just because it’s big doesn’t guarantee the big bass will strike it. The bass may be curious and follow the swim bait. In musky fishing this follow is called raising a fish revealing it’s location, bass are no different they also reveal this location.

Sounds like hunters using scent or calls, use something big, flashy, noisy and draw any potential big bass to your area. And then try throw a confidence bait into that area thats a bit more bite sized just working it a little slower.

 

Ill have to try throwing some Big Blade Chatterbaits and 6oz wakebaits to chum the waters in my favorite pre spawn area. Then follow up with a lipless or a jig.